Fuse's Hold by E.C. Land (books for students to read TXT) 📕

The crunch of feet against gravel draws my attention back to the window to find Tyres coming toward the house. Fuse explained to me how they’d all decided to build houses within the gate of the clubhouse, but it still doesn’t stop me from feeling completely safe. He also told me Tyres’ house was going up between his and Chains.

I continue to follow Tyres as he makes his way up the steps of Fuse’s house and goes to the door. He doesn’t bother knocking. I’m sure he saw me sitting in the window and figured he didn’t need to knock.

It’s not my house so I can’t say anything. Not that I mind anyway. Tyres is a character all of himself and I find him amusing. In the past two months, though, this is the first time I’ve seen him.

Tyres steps into the open family room, where I’m sitting on the bay window bench seat. I forget to breathe at the tormented look in Tyres’ eyes as his gaze meets mine.

“Hi,” I murmur tentatively while trying to keep the tremble out of my voice.

Without a response, he moves. His feet bring him to me and he scoots my feet to the side and sits on the edge of the seat near me, eyes going to the drawing in my hand. “Ly,” he murmurs, anguish pouring out with the simple word.

“Are . . . Are you okay?” I ask, unsure if I should have asked or not.

“I should be the one asking you this very same question,” he mutters, shaking his head as he lifts his gaze to meet mine once again. “I’m sorry I haven’t been by sooner to check on you. Honestly, I feel responsible for what you went through and I don’t know how to deal with it. I have no problem gutting an asshole, but with what you endured, I can’t live with it.”

Tears prick my eyes at the words spilling from Tyres’ lips. I know what type of man he is. I also know he’s an awesome dad to his little girl. But to have him blame himself for things he didn’t have a hand in hurts more than I thought anything else could.

“Tyres,” I start, but he shakes his head, stopping me as he keeps going with what he has to say.

“I don’t know what all you went through and I get you don’t want to talk about it. Shit, if you knew the hell Brake and I went through before Ryder took us in . . .” He stops speaking, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. When he opens them again, I can see the demons torturing him. “Not many people here can understand even a small amount of what you endured. Everyone’s demons are different, Ly, but I’m telling you I get them. What you need to get, though, is you have to find a way to release them. Being in here, not going out of this house, you’re letting those fuckers still hold you prisoner.”

At his words, I stop breathing altogether because he’s right.

“You need to have someone to talk to. Whether it’s a neutral party, like a doctor or some shit, or you can talk to someone you trust. I talk to my brothers. They’re there for me when I need it. Shit, even know they’re there for me. Fuse asked me to come talk to you after I told him that it guts me to know I’m partially responsible,” Tyres states as the first tear spills down my cheek.

“Tyres, you didn’t do anything to me. You can’t be responsible for it,” I utter, finally finding my voice.

“It was my daughter you protected until right before we got there and they’d taken you away,” Tyres grumbles.

“And for that sweet girl, I’d do anything. She’s just a baby and they wanted to hurt her. I couldn’t let them do that. I did what I did to keep her safe.” And this is the truth. I allowed them to do it to keep Wren safe and even knowing what I’d go through, I’d do it again without hesitation because that little girl didn’t need to go through what I did or, worse, be sold.

I remember those men talking about the options of what they could do with Wren and how she could be sold, or held on to and trained for a master to own her and use her as he saw fit when she got older.

“Ly, it was my baby girl that you were protecting. Regardless of if you did what you did to keep her safe, that shit still comes back at me because it was my own fuckin’ fault they took her in the first place.”

“Tyres, you can’t know what they had planned for her or that she’d be in danger. No one did. I sure didn’t think I was. But I was taken and used as nothing but a toy to do as they pleased.” My voice is barely loud enough to hear on the last part of what I say, but I hold Tyres’ eyes for the first time as I continue ‘cause out of everyone besides Fuse, I feel a connection to him because of what I sacrificed for his daughter.

“For months, I was raped constantly. Some days chained to a bed, other times, I had a chain around my neck. I was never allowed far from Leonard or Allen. I hated those men and wished for death on more than one occasion. I lost hope of being found, then I did something that would guarantee me my wish. I killed Allen in his sleep. He’d been foolish to keep his hunting knife out after he’d used it to slice into my skin. I stabbed him multiple times before Leonard walked into the room and found me straddling his second in command. Leonard ordered his men to beat me near to death after he took his fill one last time.”

I close my eyes, shake my